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{
    "id": 374880,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/374880/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 580,
    "type": "other",
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    "content": "competitiveness. We are not going to achieve this global competitiveness if we are not able to attract financial investment in Kenya both from local investors and regional and international investors. It is in this regard that I feel we need reforms that will give investors confidence to put their money into this economy. We will then be able to grow and develop this economy to the level that we need to reach and achieve our goal of Vision 2030. Beyond that, however, we must also realize that one of the challenges we are faced with as a country is that the capital markets is a fairly elitist market – it is a market that is understood by very few people and yet when we have IPOs we appeal to the general public to invest in them. So, the Capital Markets Authority has a huge task to educate the general public on the dealings of the stock market, the futures market and the commodities market. We know that in the past we have had situations where people get into investments during IPOs with absolutely no knowledge of what they are getting into. Ultimately when they get dividends of one shilling or half of a shilling they imagine that probably the companies that they have invested in have ripped them off when in reality they should have been educated enough to understand. My support for this Bill is one, because of looking at the kind of good reforms that will be coming in the capital markets and, secondly, the fact that there is a clear separation of powers between the regulator and the Cabinet Secretary and the President, particularly with regard to appointments. Thirdly, when I look at the issues of governance within the sector I realize that problems which have bedeviled this sector including inside trading have been given very clear guidelines on how that will be dealt with. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, of significance is the issue of unclaimed dividends. There are a lot of people who pass on and a lot of their dividends are unclaimed. There has never been an authority to follow up those kinds of dividends to pass them on to the beneficiaries. This Bill proposes clearly that the unclaimed dividends be surrendered to the Unclaimed Assets Authority which is now an institution that is in charge of that. In this country we have billions of shillings in the banks and at the Nairobi Stock Exchange and whose owners have passed on, but whose claim has not been put in place because for a long time we did not have an authority to undertake this. As I conclude, I would like to add a link to what we are doing to the education sector. We are dealing with a very sophisticated area of financial management. However, if you look at our education system, in the most sophisticated institutions of Kenya, what we are discussing as the futures markets, derivatives, commodity markets and so on are subjects that even professors are grappling with in the universities. In order to grow the capital markets we need to have a curriculum that addresses very specific areas of finance like this one. As it is today, graduates in Bachelor of Commerce, or Finance and related areas like accounting in our universities still struggle to understand how the capital market operates. The challenge, therefore, is how we link our education system to the new frontiers that we are getting into in order to grow our economy. I think that the area of capital markets is one that should have a clear strategy in the education system with the aim of developing experts and professionals. I thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker and I beg to support."
}